Campaign Issues and Hemispheric Meetings

One hundred and fifty years ago this month, Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Colombia and Venezuela, convoked the first meeting on western hemispheric unity. The meeting, held in Panama from June 22 to July 15, 1826, attempted—unsuccessfully—to “establish a great hemisphere confederation, composed of all the American nations.” A treaty creating the federation never went into effect because only one nation, Colombia, ratified it.

In the succeeding century and a half, Latin America has continued, with varying results, to search for that elusive unity. A heads-of-state conference, called by Panama to commemorate the 1826 meeting, was “indefinitely postponed” last month when several Latin American governments objected to the invitation issued to Cuban Premier Fidel Castro. In place of the conference, the Organization of American States scheduled a protocolary session of its Permanent Council, composed of ambassadors instead of heads of state. More recently, Mexico announced its intention to boycott the annual General Assembly of the OAS, scheduled for June 4–18 in Santiago, Chile, in protest of the Chilean junta's suppression of political opposition and violation of human rights.

Hemispheric unity has never been a cause to excite the American public. Over the years, Latin America has been looked on as weak and impoverished, and of little importance to American interests. With a few exceptions, such as the crises in Cuban-American relations in the early 1960s, Latin America has had no “political constituency” in the United States. This year, however, to the surprise of both major political parties, Latin America is a factor in the presidential campaign.